Our Pâques weekend Gospelcafé concert.

Manu and his band were ready to sing to the Lord Saturday night. I had purchased some chocolate Easter eggs to pass out. Emails and flyers had been distributed. Posters were in the Montigny area along with a few other regional locations.

This is the first time we'd decided to do a concert the one day before Easter/Pâques. I didn't know if anyone would show up with all the preparations for lunch and family the next day and the Chasse aux Oeufs (chase the eggs) games on Saturday afternoon.

The sky was cloudy and gray, Russell and I snagged a ride with friends of ours in the afternoon who were going grocery shopping in Rambouillet. Our car is at "Speedy" for a clutch repair. It may take 2 weeks before we get it back. I hope they return it fixed before the April Vacance which is the last 2 weeks of April.

Rain began to fall and it really turned cool. We were south of Magny where the Egg games and treats would be held. I was hoping they wouldn't get rained on. A little mist/rain never keeps French kids away, though when there's chocolate or candy involved. That's a common occurrence here in the Paris area. A text from a friend said the Egg event went well. It was cold though but not rainy. She met some mothers of the children who came out of their apartments.

Our leadership is hoping to purchase a building in this area. If I understand this correctly, there is a Foundation in the states who help church planting efforts with funding arrangements and even purchasing buildings. A proposal will be in the works. We are trying to increase our presence in this area to make neighbors know who we are.

The car trunk was bulging from both families' food as we headed home to prepare for the evening. Our French director and his wife picked us up later and we were off to the restaurant to have a good night. None of our contacts were able to come. 15 people we'd never known before walked in with flyers or posters in their hands ready to hear some great music. I was pretty delighted. 2 ladies came back from the time before. One of the couples and the 2 ladies want to try out our church. 5 university students came out for the first time. Thanks to our team who handed out flyers individually to people near the restaurant and mall on 3 separate occasions and had chances to talk to some of them.

I especially loved one of the songs the GospelCafé band played, "Let Your Glory Shine!" by Lincoln Brewster - look it up on youtube.com  A big shout out to Diego for his rips on the guitar (he plays with the big named Christian bands when they come to Paris), our drummer, David, and Manu for his singing and guitar. It was fantastic. We were all up and dancing at that point. There are more concerts coming up: May 29, June 6, 21st and 27th! God is Good!

Poisson d'Avril or Happy Fish Day and other days in our French life.

Once again we are experiencing April 1st in Paris, France. Our little students arrived so happy. Some were slapping little fishes on our backs yesterday. "S'il te Plait? (big brown eyes staring at me with this sad little begging voice) Pourriez-nous du laisser faire Poisson d' Avril aujourd'hui?? Puis-je avoir un scotch?" Please, Can we do April Fish today (this was March 31st) and May I have the scotch (tape)?  It's so they can tape these paper fish to our backs and run away in hopes that we don't catch them.
 
Russell made up a card to give to the children that reads, "Thinking of you, think of us." Since this is Easter week. I also found some Kinder treats to hand out to the children.


     Pâques/ Easter is a great time to share with people about the love of Christ. Our Church of the Vallée in Chevreuse is having their annual Pâques, "Chasing the Eggs" games on Saturday. Russell has been working very hard on lots of flyers and the church brochure these past 2 weeks. Baptiste, one of our church planters, and Sylvie, one of our small group members (her family recently joined the church) met with the Adjointe Maire in the town next door to discuss our church having worship services in their community center/gymnase every week. This is a great need. The meeting went very well. We hope to have some news soon. There is a new mayor and the council seems to be more open. They are practicing Catholics. That's good news.



GospelCafé has their next concert this coming Saturday - April 4th. It's Easter weekend and we have some things to share about the significance of the week along with handing out some chocolate Easter eggs. May 28th will be our concert next month. University students from Cairn are coming to share their music.
     This semester has been busy with 51 students including our adults. We now have an intern, thank goodness. Her name is Elizabeth from North Carolina. She is helping me on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with the younger "maternelle" children while I work with the older ones. Russell is being given a break while she teaches our 2,"art only" classes. Currently we are working with her in training and teaching together. She will begin to teach alone in a couple of weeks. 7 months is her tenure and part of her time is working with us on the GospelCafé and in Normandy with the team there as well as other projects France Vie has for her.  We are delighted to get to know this young woman and partner with her.


     Last but not least, our small group has not only been delving into the "Parables of Jesus" but also the topic of "Worldview". We have added 6 additional people to the group for these discussions.  Our story of the Good Samaritan springboarded us into the worldviews of the men walking by the poor man by the side of the road. Which springboarded us to the questions of, "What is ours  and others' worldviews?


Happy Fish Day!